Can Venu Sports overcome the troubled history of sports media joint ventures?

In theory, joint ventures make sense in sports television.

Resources are shared. Marketing is synchronized. The reach of a production expands. And through all of these things together, fans become more aware of certain events and platforms available.

Every March, the country sees a joint venture in sports television that reaches peak success year after year when CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery team up to broadcast March Madness. Canadians also witness a successful joint venture, as Rogers Communications produces CBC's Saturday night NHL broadcasts, which have been a Canadian tradition for decades. Rogers will add more NHL broadcasts to its portfolio for outside partners next season when it produces Monday night broadcasts for Amazon Prime viewers. Before the NFL moved to Prime, the league also used joint venture partnerships with CBS, NBC and Fox to increase production. Football on Thursday night.

But recently we've seen the dangers of joint ventures gone wrong in sports television. Venu Sports is a joint venture streaming service between ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Sports. The service hasn't launched yet after FuboTV recently filed suit against the service. The MVPD accused Venu of unfair bundling practices. A temporary restraining order was issued preventing Venu from launching before the college football and NFL seasons. Had the service launched, it would have been a stripped-down bundle of sports channels and broadcast partners from Disney, WBD and Fox.

Currently, Venu and Fubo are preparing for a trial that begins in October 2025. Depending on the appeal of the injunction and the trial, Venu Sports' survival is at stake. For now, the streamer's owners have committed to continuing their legal battle against FuboTV, but the future looks bleak for the joint venture, which has reportedly already hired 127 employees. Venu Sports would not be the first sports television joint venture to end up sour.

Bally Sports RSNs

Bally Sports has gone through a series of lawsuits of its own and is slowly trying to survive. When Sinclair Broadcasting acquired the country's largest portfolio of regional sports networks from Disney in 2021, the infrastructure of local sports rights was already being challenged. But Sinclair believed they could maximize their revenue streams by coupling local sports with the local newscasts they already ran across the country.

On launch day, the regional sports networks celebrated their new ownership and new branding with a big party. A wrap-around show aired on all RSNs nationwide celebrated the change, showcased the new studio upgrades some markets received, and gave a season preview for all Bally Sports baseball teams.

Unfortunately, however, joy turned to chaos for Bally Sports as customers continued to abandon their cable service. Bally Sports attempted to respond by launching an app, but was unable to keep up economically with the increasing customer choice. The Bally Sports name comes from a naming rights deal between RSN parent company Diamond Sports and Bally's Corporation, which owns casinos and an online sportsbook. The deal called for Bally's to pay Diamond $85 million over 10 years to promote their brand on RSNs, associate their name with the networks, and increase usage of their sportsbook as gambling became legal across the country. Unfortunately, Bally Bet was only available in two of the states where Diamond's RSNs operate, according to Sports Business Journal.

The Baseball Network

Disney and NBC have also had previous failed joint ventures. One of the failed joint ventures was not organized solely by either party, although their networks were involved. In 1994, Major League Baseball attempted to create its own network based on ABC and NBC. It was literally known as The Baseball Network. The nationally televised games aired on ABC on Saturdays or Mondays and then on NBC on Fridays. The league produced its own games using talent from both networks. Unfortunately, they made a fatal mistake that would end the joint venture after a year.

The league decided that playoff games would be broadcast regionally rather than nationally. Viewers did not have access to the playoff game of their choice. The experiment did not last long. Due to the 1994 players' strike and massive criticism of the product, the league and broadcasters ended the experiment. It was supposed to run for six years, but ultimately lasted only half a season after launching during the All-Star break.

The Olympic Channel

Putting the stars front and center is always at the heart of these joint venture talks. That's why NBC and the IOC teamed up to create the American version of the Olympic Channel. Star athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt were able to capture the hearts and minds of Americans during the Olympics before fading into obscurity until they returned to the spotlight heading into the next Games. NBC and the IOC wanted to find a way to keep that momentum going in the off years.

An Olympic sports network already existed The Olympic Channel. Universal Sports was a network owned by private equity firm InterMedia Partners. It was the home of track and field, international swimming and gymnastics, and other sports. NBC owned a minority stake in the network. Unfortunately, the network shut down in 2015. But its principles and rights were eventually reunited with the Olympic Channel in 2017.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics, the channel served as the home for highlights and news. NBC's Jimmy Roberts also served as the channel's occasional anchor. The channel's biggest problem, however, is that aside from broadcasting competitions during the Olympic off-years through 2020, it has never shown live action from the Olympics themselves.

None of the major sports known for their stars, such as swimming, gymnastics, or track and field, had a competition broadcast on the network, so fans didn't really know of its existence. The network also competed with NBC Sports Network for the love and attention of its parent company. Unfortunately, the network shut down for good again in 2022, a year after NBCSN said goodbye. Both networks still have a virtual presence on NBC's streaming service Peacock.

Bar stool Van Talk

Despite the quick shutdown of the Olympic Channel, nothing was as abrupt as the end of Bar stool Van Talk. ESPN noticed the emergence of Barstool Sports and its young fan base and wanted a piece of it. They also noticed a couple dominating the podcast charts. Dan Katz and PFT Commenter, hosts of Excuse my opinionare still one of the most listened to podcasts in the country. Barstool Sports has been known to go too far at times, and unfortunately for them, one of those moments came back to haunt them.

Samantha Ponder, a former anchor at the network, tweeted her frustration that the website had been given a spot on the program. She shared screenshots of a blog that referred to Ponder as “a girl who works a job where the number one requirement is to make men hard,” according to Deadline. There was also a screenshot of the folks at Barstool telling Ponder to “fuck off.” The screenshots were a microcosm of how many employees at ESPN were feeling at the time. One ESPN employee was quoted as telling SI, “God bless Sam Ponder.”

Pressure from within the company and on social media convinced former ESPN president John Skipper to cancel the show after one episode aired. Skipper said that ESPN approved the show's content, but he was wrong to think the network could distance itself from “the Barstool site and its content.” Many years later, ESPN finally found a way to reach a younger fan base in Barstool alumnus Pat McAfee in what is currently the most high-profile joint venture in sports television: the noon-2 p.m. slot on ESPN.